Eighty-eight contracted players will suit up for NBL teams in the opening round of the 2017/18 season, but there is one player who stands out above the rest to be the most average guy in the league.
Going by the numbers he is not taller, shorter, lighter, heavier, younger or older than the average NBL player, but at the same time, he is far from the average player in the competition.
The player most closely matches the average height, weight and age is Melbourne United’s, DJ Kennedy.
After calculating the averages for the physical attributes of all eighty-eight players in the league, Kennedy’s characteristics were the closest to the league’s average in height, weight and date of birth.
| Height (cm) | Weight (kg) | Date of Birth | |
| DJ Kennedy | 198 | 98 | 1989 |
| League Average | 198 | 96 | 1990 |
No-one knows how Kennedy will fare in the NBL this season, but Melbourne will be hoping that he is more than average in production. Perth’s Terrico White and Brisbane’s Cameron Gliddon were second on the list, with White being born in the average year but two centimetres and kilograms off. Gliddon was one year, one centimetre and two kilograms away from the average.
TALL TIMBER
| Tallest Players | Team | Height (cm) | Shortest Players | Team | Height (cm) |
| Alex Pledger | MEL | 215 | Jerome Randle | SYD | 175 |
| Andrew Bogut | SYD | 213 | Adam Doyle | ADE | 176 |
| Daniel Johnson | ADE | 212 | Casper Ware | MEL | 178 |
| Harry Froling | ADE | 211 | Adris Deleon | ADE | 180 |
| Rob Loe | CNS | 211 | Shea Ili | NZB | 183 |
Six players measure at 211cm, with Froling, Loe, Matt Hodgson (BRI), AJ Ogilvy (ILL), Tom Jervis (PER) and David Andersen (ILL) hitting that mark. Pledger was the tallest player last season, with former NBA player Bogut joining him as the only two players over seven foot tall.
Jerome Randle wasn’t a part of last season’s rankings as he joined midway through the season, but at only 175cm he does a massive amount on the court for the smallest amount of size.
HEAVY LIFTING
| Heaviest Players | Team | Weight (kg) | Lightest Players | Team | Weight (kg) |
| Nathan Jawai | CNS | 140 | Adam Doyle | ADE | 75 |
| Andrew Bogut | SYD | 118 | Adris Deleon | ADE | 75 |
| Matt Hodgson | BRI | 115 | Bryce Cotton | PER | 75 |
| AJ Ogilvy | ILL | 115 | Jerome Randle | SYD | 77 |
| Alex Pledger | MEL | 113 | Tom Wilson | SYD | 77 |
In all probability, Nathan Jawai will be the heaviest player in the league until he retires. His bulk is his primary weapon, and he will use it extensively this season. Harry Froling, David Andersen and Cameron Bairstow are also clocking in at 113kg, making Froling one of the biggest rookies to play in the NBL for some time.
Just like with the heaviest category, the lightest players are generally the shortest. Three of the smallest players are here, with Wilson being the anomaly. Even though he weighs in at 77kg, he is 194cm tall, around 10cm taller than the rest of the list.
SPRING CHICKENS AND OLD TIMERS
| Oldest Players | Team | Date of Birth | Youngest Players | Team | Date of Birth |
| David Andersen | ILL | 23/6/1980 | Brian Bowen | SYD | 2/10/1998 |
| Mika Vukona | BRI | 13/5/1982 | Will Magnay | BRI | 10/6/1998 |
| Alex Loughton | CNS | 3/5/1983 | Daniel Grida | ILL | 26/4/1998 |
| Daniel Kickert | SYD | 29/5/1983 | Harry Froling | ADE | 20/4/1998 |
| David Barlow | MEL | 22/10/1983 | Tom Wilson | SYD | 24/6/1997 |
With Kirk Penney retiring last season, Andersen is now the oldest player in the league by two years. He has also played far fewer games than the rest on this list with his exploits overseas. Although youth is seen as an advantage in the NBL, all five players above will be counted on for meaningful minutes.
Last year Brian Bowen was in high school and when he became the first player from the Next Stars program, he also became the league’s youngest player. Harry Froling is the league’s youngest Aussie.
AVERAGE NBL TEAM MEASUREMENTS
(Change from last season in brackets)
| Team | Height | Weight | Year of Birth | Games |
| Adelaide | 196.5 (-0.8) | 91.3 (-2.5) | 1991 | 74.3 (+2.4) |
| Brisbane | 197.5 (-1.6) | 98.2 (+3.7) | 1990 | 137.8 (+22.3) |
| Cairns | 200.3 (+3.1) | 100.3 (+0.5) | 1990 | 86.6 (-1.3) |
| Illawarra | 195.6 (-1.9) | 97.3 (-1.1) | 1989 | 96.2 (-48.1) |
| Melbourne | 199.4 (+1.3) | 97.4 (-0.2) | 1990 | 91.4 (+18.9) |
| New Zealand | 195.1 (-3.3) | 95.8 (-3.4) | 1991 | 83.3 (-23.0) |
| Perth | 199.1 (+0.7) | 97.0 (+1.7) | 1989 | 135.5 (+18.9) |
| Sydney | 198.3 (-1.7) | 93.5 (-4.2) | 1990 | 59.0 (-26.8) |
BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS
- Cairns is both the league’s tallest team and heaviest team after adding Devon Hall, Dexter Kernich-Drew and Rob Loe who are all above the height average.
- Adelaide is the lightest, with 63% of the Sixers players lighter than the league average.
- Brisbane is the most experienced team in the NBL with NBL stalwarts Jason Cadee (220 games), Cameron Gliddon (171 games) and Mika Vukona (421 games) and Adam Gibson (384 games) on the roster.
- Vukona, who is also 36th all-time in games played, leads the league for games played by active players. His teammate Gibson is second on the list.
- As a team, the Hawks lost 48 games of experience due to Oscar Forman’s retirement and recruiting young talent like Emmett Naar and Daniel Grida. This is the largest amount of NBL experience lost that any team had this off-season. Prior to his retirement, Forman’s 511 games were the most of any active player and 11th all-time.
- 21 players are yet to suit up in the NBL. Perth has the least with only one player without NBL experience (Terrico White). Sydney has the most with five players yet to play in an NBL game (Brian Bowen, Tom Wilson, David Wear, Andrew Bogut and Deng Deng).
- We’ve got more NBL rookies this season than last year with ten players in the running for Rookie of the Year. Illawarra has three players playing their first season in the league in Daniel Grida, Emmett Naar and Marshall Nelson. Adelaide has two in Harry Froling (Our Favorite) and Jack McVeigh and Sydney have Tom Wilson. The Rookie of the year award also includes players who may have played last year as a development player but has moved into a team’s full-time roster this season making Will Magnay (Brisbane), Tohi Smith-Milner (Melbourne), Rhys Vague (Perth) and Deng Acouth (Sydney) also candidates.
- Reuben Te Rangi is the 12th youngest player but has already played 154 games in the league. At 24 years old, he still might have at least ten years left in his body, so if he plays 25 games per year, he will have 404 games under his belt. Which would still be 261 games less than the games all-time leader in Tony Ronaldson.
- Melbourne isn’t as experienced as you think they are… take away Chris Goulding, Alex Pledger and David Barlow and the United’s average games played plummets to only 34.
- Perth however, has seven players with 100+ games played.
- In true Gullivers Travels fashion, New Zealand have no players taller than 206cm. Cairns, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney have four players that height or taller.
- Illawarra has only two players taller than 200cm, David Andersen and AJ Ogilvy. Remove them and their team’s average height drops to a minute (in basketball terms) 192cm.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
